Does Mr. Justice have a thing for little girls?
View(s):What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and all that’s nice…
Er, no. No quite. Not according to some men’s sense of justice, that is.
Recently, it seems to me that the world has gone mad about little women.
By recently, I mean in the last fortnight or so in which a clutch of headlines caught my eye.
By world, I mean the men and the movements and the machinery that seem to have it in for the petite forms of the fairer, gentler sex. (Down, ye libbers!)
Let me explain. Or try to.
First, there was that awful old case in India where the seemingly self-appointed spokesman for a gang of serial rapists now says that their erstwhile victim “deserved” it, because of the way she was dressed and the fact that she was out at night. So she was gang-raped. And thrown off a bus. Not surprisingly, she died…
Then, there was that amazing instance back home where a little girl was hauled up before the awful majesty of the law for stealing five rupees. Read it again. For. Stealing. Five. Rupees. This, in a country where BILLIONS are lost… or missed – or go missing – or are misappropriated – or are expropriated – by Grown Men who should know better.
And, now that the stories are coming out, editorialists are beginning to recall and relive and revile those other astounding examples of justice’s dirty little perversions. Such as when a little girl was charged, indicted, and convicted of stealing – wait for it, a handful of coconuts. This, in a country where BILLIONS are lost… or missed – or go missing – or are misappropriated – or are expropriated – by Grown Men who should know better. By. Grown. Men. Sorry, am I repeating myself? Forgive me, dears. It’s just because this all beggars belief.
Now the more conservative – or shall we say ‘fair-minded’ – among you might urge caution on me and suggest I leave the Indians to deal with their own dirty laundry. Fair enough. I will. But not before I say that in this respect, at least, far too many of our Sri Lankan men take after their sub-continental counterparts to let it rest lightly, sans comment. You hear about a rape or harassment case almost every day. In every form of the media. In Sri Lanka. Have we all forgotten that spunky girl in Wariyapola? Or that woman who was attacked by a copper in Ratnapura? Or the myriad maidens who are use and abused, mentally and physically and emotionally and verbally – every which way – every day – in buses, trains, trishaws, and down the lane in your own friendly little neighbourhood as they make their way home? To God knows what misuse in their own homes, homes away from home, and hostelries?
There. I’ve said it. Blaming the victim of rape for the crime perpetrated on her is not India’s shame alone. Sri Lanka can bring its version of the A-Game in this arena any day, and more’s the pity…
Now to those poor little girls:
The hard questions have been asked, and not answered adequately or answered quite inappropriately. So I’m going to ask them again:
Is Justice angry that little girls these days are breaking out in a rash of petty theft because they are needy, hungry, abjectly poor? Is Justice blind that it cannot see the big bad girls – and big bad men – and big bad wolves – who get off scot-free, while these poor little girls are subject to the full force of prosecution? Is Justice cruel that it takes sadomasochistic pleasure in inflicting torture on these relatively innocent young miscreants when fraudsters, drug lords, mafia kingpins, et al., are cheerily waved on as they pass or have the charges against them waived off because they know big bad wolves or men or women in high places, or can fork out the five – thousands or millions or billions – it takes to stave off legal action?
Yes, I’m angry! Yes, I’m almost blinded by rage against the machine that manufactures such injustices! Yes, I’m tempted to perpetrate some spectacular cruelties against the men and movements and monuments of Justice that think this can pass, that this too will pass, that this too shall pass without address or redress!
Civil Society (I mean you, dears), are we ASLEEP? Or IGNORANT? Or APATHETIC? Don’t we know? Don’t we care? Can’t we see? Can’t we DO SOMETHING for crying out loud??!!
Oh, I don’t know what… Say, write a strong letter to the editor, for starters. Try starting up a community watch to prevent such ugly things from happening in your neighbourhood (both the petty crimes and their pathetic causes). Or advocating for the small fry who get caught in the net. Or beating law and order into better shape by using the power you wield or the money at your disposal to reform our criminal codes. Start at least by developing some sense of proportion, some bone of sensitivity, some smidgen of compassion, some iota of good sense.
We won the war (but lost a generation). We won at cricket (but lost our integrity) – or is that the other way round? We still win awards, accolades, encomia on the world stage for a panoply of lies… let’s not add child abuse and a criminally perverse justice system to the litany of achievements and accomplishments We’ve recently been winning fame – and notoriety – for.